Meet Mamdani's International Affairs Commissioner, a Defund Police Activist Who Endorsed Free Health Care for Illegal Aliens
Ana María Archila may be best known for confronting former senator Jeff Flake in an elevator during Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation
Jon Levine
February 25, 2026
The official representing New York City on the international stage under Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) is a defund-the-police radical who campaigned for lieutenant governor on a platform that included billions of dollars in giveaways to illegal aliens, including free health care.
Ana María Archila, Mamdani's pick to serve as commissioner of the Mayor's Office of International Affairs for New York City, pledged to support the "Coverage4All" effort to provide health insurance for illegal aliens, the website from her failed 2022 campaign states. The program would offer a taxpayer-funded health plan for illegal aliens in New York at up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, running up a projected annual cost of $345 million, according to the city comptroller's office.
Archila also ran on expanding the Excluded Workers Fund, a pot of taxpayer money meant for illegal aliens in New York who do not qualify for welfare programs because of their immigration status. The fund initially had a $2.1 billion budget that ran dry within a matter of months. Payouts ran as high as $15,600 per applicant, and the state deemed 99 percent of applicants as eligible. Archila promised to funnel $3 billion into the fund, money that would likely also have been spent in just a few months.
